Dan flinched as he peered in the mirror. He tried to enjoy the view, but it was just too strange. Yes, HE, HIMself. Whatever the contraption had done Dan still felt like a man. So, he was a "he" even if his body was a "she", currently.
And it was a nice body but... This is so weird!! Dan forced himself to look his reflection over, dressed only in boxers. What he saw was not the increasingly padded, husky man he was used to, nor the hunkier one he had hoped for, but a woman who bore an eeiry similarity to both. And yet still looked so foreign.
She had Dan's brown hair, Dan's myopic eyes, Dan's hawkish nose, Dan's strong jawline. She was the same height. Dan had set the machine for a lean physique and large muscles, so thankfully the mammaries of his doppleganger's chest were relatively small, her body much more robust than those of models that graced TV and magazines. For a woman she was rather imposing and masculine (though not in a completely unattractive way, if Dan did say so himself).
But looking in the mirror, even looking down, was disorienting as hell. Dan reluctantly studied the reflection further - besides the obvious, what had changed? The machine had apparently altered his skeleton, he realized. His shoulders were narrower (although broad for a broad, the Comedian would say) and his pelvis wider, giving him a more distinct waistline. So that's why my underwear keeps riding up! Dan irritably pulled at the boxers, adjusting them to sit lower on his hips. Just have to deal with it. No way I'm going to wear... panties.
Well, so be it. He'd do his best to get back into the swing of things until he could be changed back. He was actually a little grateful Rorschach had given him something to do besides mope. And really, what should it matter? Male and female owls were virtually identical, after all. In fact, "reversed" sexual size dimorphism occurs in most of the owls of North America, the females of some species up to 40% bigger than their male counterparts-- So far the only really weird thing was having to sit to pee. Yes, surely Nite Owl II could rise above this strange predicament! A vision of both him AND Rorschach terrorizing the underworld as voluptuous ladies popped up and Dan let the laughter come. It only had a slightly desperate edge, and felt good to let it out.
Okay let's see how the gear looks.
Dan mentally thanked himself for designing a suit with a voluminous cape and head-to-toe coverings. Perhaps with a few slight modifications, "he" could go out again and no one would be the wiser.
Not even Rorschach.
Dan didn't want the other vigilante to know. Rorschach was one of the most asexual people Dan had ever met, but he seemed uncomfortable around women and... well Dan would just prefer to keep this to himself, if possible. And maybe it was.
Daniel tentatively donned his owlsuit, then breathed a sigh of relief. It actually fit pretty well! With the goggles and cowl on, in the dark no one would notice that his jaw was a little smoother, his lips a little fuller... the waistline wasn't particularly tighter than before, the loose shoulders could be padded, and the… oy.
Well I'd been thinking about making a chestplate anyway.
Dan hurried to the basement and began to fashion a hasty… breastguard. Fortunately he had things to work with, preliminary plans and parts he's started on a few years ago, then abandoned. He found himself whistling tunelessly as he worked, it felt good to be making something again. How long had it been since he last tinkered down here, months? Why had he stopped? A little assembling, a few quick adjustments, and voila! Protection from weapons AND prying eyes. It wasn't too stylish, and would be a bit of a pain to take on and off… maybe he should add a buckle to this strap, and split the front piece in two, add zipper and a flap to hide it… He could remodel it in that new plastic he'd read about, make it lighter and without sacrificing any strength…
No, no. No time for that. He'd just wanted to quickly throw something together to keep Rorschach from noticing Dan's… condition… when he came back. Maybe later he'd be able to tinker with it but hopefully that wouldn't be necessary. Hopefully he'd be back to his proper shape soon. Anyway, right now he needed to get cracking on that file Rorschach had left…
Yeesh. Rorschach had been kinda a creepy jerk lately but Dan still felt horrible for locking him out. He'd just wanted to hide, hadn't really thought about what he was doing until Rorschach had started walking away. After ten years of fighting side by side his partner deserved better treatment than that. Dan wasn't sure what he could to do make it up, but at least he wouldn't let Rorschach down.
Dan opened the ragged folder and squinted at Rorschach's handwriting. Either it was getting harder to read, or Dan's eyes were getting worse – 50 / 50 odds, Dan guessed.
… neh, no exaggeration, this was pretty nasty. Three women and one child dead within a year. Two of the women had been single mothers, the first had been murdered in front of her now-orphaned 3 year old son and infant daughter, and the second's baby son had been killed along with her. Is that what had gotten a bug up his partner's butt? Rorschach had managed to snag the last victim's address book, and apparently had also questioned several friends and relatives of the deceased. Dan winced a little at the thought. A long list of names for him to run through had been provided.
The first place to start was police records. This was far from the first time they'd done this and he'd already made a program to search the NYPD database for a string of name inputs; all Dan had to do was type them in and format them. Hollis had helped him set up access to the police database. The former cop hadn't been quite comfortable with the secret backdoor although he understood the need to protect Dan's identity and how valuable the information could be. Dan figured it was okay because the police were supposed to be working with them anyway, even if you couldn't tell it lately. This was a hell of a lot easier than asking them directly and ruffled less feathers, better for everyone right? Still he hated putting his mentor in that position.
It took half an hour to decipher and type in all the names, as well as possible misspellings. Dan set the code running and sat back in satisfaction as the processing began. He had a few minutes to wait and think about the case while the data crunched. Dan agreed this seemed to be the work of a single baddie. Yes there were a lot of murders in New York, even a lot of murders of young African American women, unfortunately. But by strangulation, in the same neighborhood? The odds started to get slim there. And the accompanying petty theft – how many criminals bothered to steal a roll of quarters (the first victim) or a can full of change (the third)? God, it was nice to be chasing after a real, clear-cut bad guy for once! Crimefighting was so often a sordid slog of hate-on-hate, desperation, and corruption. But this… okay this was pretty sordid too, but stopping this guy, it would really be helping. If this was a genuine serial killer, catching him would be like slaying a monster – really slaying it. Fighting organized crime was like fighting a hydra – lop off one head and a dozen smaller ones spring up to take its place. Put a boss in jail and they were out in a few months with a slap on the wrist, or they practically ran the joint while a hundred small fry fought to take top spot on the outside. But serial killers… they were more like… gorgons or something. They spontaneously sprang forth and marauded until they were stopped. Once turned over to the police the killer would be locked up for good, his crimes at an end.
Dan tugged irritably at a strap that was chaffing his neck. The breastplate it was attached to shifted and Dan realized he hadn't thought once about his problem since opening the file. A celebratory cup of coffee was in order, and for the hell of it Dan ran up the stairs, feeling himself for the first time in over a week. He dropped a sugar cube into his steaming mug and stirred, eyes gravitating to his calendar. This month's photo was a beautiful shot of a female barred owl clutching a mouse, pinions spread, alighting to enjoy her successful capture. He never tired of looking at it. Dan's eyes trailed down to the date portion and frowned… what day was it? He checked the pile of mail he'd been picking up from the door slot and leaving despondently on the table; September 6th?! Dan groaned. The next "crimebusters" meeting was three days away!
A cheery hoot from the basement indicated his program was done searching. Dan put aside thoughts of the impending conference and went down to check out what it had found. The file of results was large… quite large. It would take a while to go through them.
Dan sipped some coffee and opened the first document.
Good.
